BOSTON — The Celtics have every rotation player back from last year’s title squad, but the playoff rotation looked a little different this time around for Game 1 against the Magic. Joe Mazzulla stuck to his regular season map with this group at full strength, leaning into a nine-player rotation this time around, with Luke Kornet being the new addition to a healthy playoff rotation in a 103-86 Celtics win.
Mazzulla went with his usual starters, but mixed and matched throughout the entire first half searching for some rhythm of both ends of the floor. The starters came out uneven offensively, and the bench was much of the same outside of Payton Pritchard until halftime.
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The Magic’s unthreatening offensive personnel outside of Paolo Banchero allowed for Mazzulla to mix and match to find the right combinations. He cycled through almost every possible lineup rotation look in the first half, from Porzingis as single big with the starters, to double bigs with Horford/Porzingis, Kornet/Horford and even with Kornet as a center with the starters for a couple of minutes.
Boston’s double bigs have been better performing lineups all year long for Mazzulla compared to single big lineups in the regular season. However, it was with Porzingis and Horford at center where Boston ultimately took control of the game in this one. The starting five along with Payton Pritchard in for Derrick White jumped out to a 28-10 run in the third quarter to help the hosts erase a halftime lead and build a double-digit advantage.
The Magic have elected to play one true big in this series so far (Wendell Carter Jr.) so it was fascinating to see Boston double big lineups fall flat in Game 1 for much of the first half. Those bigger groupings provide better rim protection, but they struggled at times with Orlando’s speed on the perimeter and also did not carry their weight on the defensive glass early.
Ultimately, Mazzulla navigated the situation quite well given his plethora of options. He went with double bigs for just two minutes in the second half, leaning on Al Horford at center for virtually the entire fourth quarter while keeping Porzingis minutes down in the process (26) amid a poor shooting night for the big man.
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Ultimately, Boston played about a third of the game with double bigs and that distribution enabled the team to keep their top centers at reasonable minutes (26 for Al Horford and Porzingis) while taking some onus off Jaylen Brown (31) as well with a ninth player in the rotation.
With a healthy squad in this postseason run, Mazzulla has the luxury of adapting more than ever based on game flow. He did that quite well in Game 1, overcoming a poor shooting night from his stars and a standout performance from Paolo Banchero (36 points) with relative ease.
The formula to win every postseason game won’t be the same for the Celtics in 2025, but Mazzulla looks prepared to find the best look for this group every night the rest of the way.
